Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences

These two volumes consist of a selection from several thousands of letters entrusted to me by the Wallace family and dating from the dawn of Darwinism to the second decade of the twentieth century, supplemented by such biographical particulars and comments as are required for the elucidation of the correspondence and for giving movement and continuity to the whole.

The wealth and variety of Wallace's own correspondence, excluding the large collection of letters which he received from many eminent men and women, and the necessity for somewhat lengthy introductions and many annotations, have expanded the work to two (there was, indeed, enough good material to make four) volumes. The family has given me unstinted confidence in using or rejecting letters and reminiscences, and although I have consulted scientific and literary friends, I alone must be blamed for sins of omission or commission. Nothing has been suppressed in the unpublished letters, or in any of the letters which appear in these volumes, because there was anything to hide. Everything Wallace wrote, all his private letters, could be published to the world. His life was an open book--"no weakness, no contempt, dispraise, or blame, nothing but well and fair."

The profoundly interesting and now historic correspondence between Darwin and Wallace, part of which has already appeared in the "Life and Letters of Charles Darwin" and "More Letters," and part in Wallace's autobiography, entitled "My Life," is here published, with new additions, for the first time as a whole, so that the reader now has before him the necessary material to form a true estimate of the origin and growth of the theory of Natural Selection, and of the personal relationships of its noble co-discoverers.

My warmest thanks are offered to Sir Francis Darwin for permission to use his father's letters, for his annotations, and for rendering help in checking the typescript of the Darwin letters; to Mr. John Murray, C.V.O., for permission to use letters and notes from the "Life and Letters of Charles Darwin" and from "More Letters"; to Messrs. Chapman and Hall for their great generosity in allowing the free use of letters and material in Wallace's "My Life"; to Prof. E.B. Poulton, Prof. Sir W.F. Barrett, Sir Wm. Thiselton-Dyer, Dr. Henry Forbes, and others for letters and reminiscences; and to Prof. Poulton for reading the proofs and for valuable suggestions. An intimate chapter on Wallace's Home Life has been contributed by his son and daughter, Mr. W.G. Wallace and Miss Violet Wallace.

J.M.

March, 1916.

CONTENTS

Volume I

INTRODUCTION

PART I

I. WALLACE AND DARWIN--EARLY YEARS

II. EARLY LETTERS (1854-62)

PART II

I. THE DISCOVERY OF NATURAL SELECTION

II. THE COMPLETE EXTANT CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN WALLACE AND DARWIN (1857-81)

Volume II

PART III

I. WALLACE'S WORKS ON BIOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

II. CORRESPONDENCE ON BIOLOGY, GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, ETC. (1864-93)

III. CORRESPONDENCE ON BIOLOGY, GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, ETC. (1894-1913)

PART IV

HOME LIFE

PART V

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL VIEWS

PART VI

SOME FURTHER PROBLEMS

I. ASTRONOMY

II. SPIRITUALISM

PART VII

CHARACTERISTICS

APPENDIX: LISTS OF WALLACE'S WRITINGS

INDEX

LIST OF PLATES IN VOLUME I

A.R. WALLACE (1912)

A.R. WALLACE (SINGAPORE, 1862)

A.R. WALLACE'S MOTHER

A.R. WALLACE SOON AFTER HIS RETURN FROM THE EAST

Alfred Russel Wallace

Letters and Reminiscences

INTRODUCTION